Training device including captive ball to be struck by game club

ABSTRACT

A game ball is tethered to a vertical support. The tethering structure includes first and second horizontally extending parts. The inner end of the first part is clamped to the vertical support and capable of being vertically adjusted thereon. The inner end of the second part is pivotally connected to the outer end of the first part for swinging movement in a horizontal plane. A game ball is secured to the outer end of the second part. In its initial position, the second part is in substantial alignment with the first part. When the ball is struck by a game club, the second part swings almost 180* degrees around the pivotal connection to a position substantially parallel to the first part. At the end of its swinging movement, the second arm engages the end of a coil spring mounted on a side of the first part, which causes the second part to rebound to its initial position. As the second part approaches its initial position, a complementary cam and nylon button on the second and first parts, respectively, coact to brake the second part to a halt ready for the next stroke. The game ball may be a tennis ball, baseball, or golf ball. The movement of the second part can be employed to spin a reversible disc including gone indicia on its opposite sides. The disc may be located in a housing including a window through which the indicia may be seen and the disc may be spun by an arrangement including a spindle, gear, rod, spring and pawl.

United States Patent 91 Vincent 1 May 8,1973

[54] TRAINING DEVICE INCLUDING CAPTIVE BALL TO BE STRUCK BY GAME CLUB [76] Inventor: Douglas Lincolne Vincent, 26 Chelsea Avenue, Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia [22] Filed: Oct. 28, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 84,859

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,897,674 8/1959 McNeill ..273/200 B X 3,164,386 l/1965 Fink ..273/20O B X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 493,661 10/1938 Great Britain ..273/200 B 973,167 10/1964 Great Britain.... .....273/l85 D 276,589 6/1965 Australia ..273/29 A Primary Examiner-George J. Marlo Attorneyl-lolman & Stern [5 7] ABSTRACT A game ball is tethered to a vertical support. The tethering structure includes first and second horizontally extending parts. The inner end of the first part is clamped to the vertical support and capable of being vertically adjusted thereon, The inner end of the second part is pivotally connected to the outer end of the first part for swinging movement in a horizontal plane. A game ball is secured to the outer end of the second part. In its initial position, the second part is in substantial alignment with the first part. When the ball is struck by a game club, the second part swings almost 180 degrees around the pivotal connection to a position substantially parallel to the first part. At the end of its swinging movement, the second arm engages the end of a coil spring mounted on a side of the first part, which causes the second part to rebound to its initial position. As the second part approaches its initial position, a complementary cam and nylon button on the second and first parts, respectively, coaet to brake the second part to a halt ready for the next stroke. The game ball may be a tennis ball, baseball, or golf ball. The movement of the second part can be employed to spin a reversible disc including gone indicia on its opposite sides. The disc may be located in a housing including a window through which the indicia may be seen and the disc may be spun by an arrangement including a spindle, gear, rod, spring and pawl.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDW 81w SHEET 1 [IF 2 TRAINING DEVICE INCLUDING CAPTIVE BALL TO BE STRUCK BY GAME CLUB BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a sports trainer device for ball games of the general type in which a ball to be struck is mounted on a pivoted arm, which arm, when the ball is struck, pivots around to strike against spring return means which return it to its initial position ready for a further practice stroke.

PRIOR DEVICES Such a device has been proposed wherein the arm is mounted on a fixed ground base and pivots down in a vertical plane towards the ground.

One severe limitation of this deviceis that the ball is limited to a set height, so that, if designed for practicing, say, tennis strokes it is only suitable for one kind of stroke, for example, medium-height drives. It is impracticable to use such a device for either very low or very high strokes.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of this invention is to provide a sports trainer in which the height of the ball can be adjusted.

The result is that the trainer may be used to practice strokes from any height, from golf strokes at ground level to serving in tennis.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a simple modification of this trainer whereby it may provide an interesting game. Generally, the trainer includes a support having a horizontal portion, the support being capable of adjustment to a desired location along a vertical standard, a substantially horizontal arm having opposite ends, a ball carried by one end of the arm, means pivotally connecting the opposite end of the arm to the horizontal portion of the support for swinging movement in a horizontal plane from an initial position in which the arm defines an extension of the horizontal portion to a second position in which the arm is in substantial parallelism to the horizontal portion, complemental means on the horizontal portion of the support and the opposite end of the arm constituting breaking means, compressing spring means on the horizontal portion projecting beyond the horizontal portion in the direction of the swinging movement of the arm operative when engaged by the arm in the second position thereof after the ball has been struck to swing the arm toward the second position, operative .to return the arm and the ball to the initial position, ready for a further stroke, and said complemental means including surfaces which, when the arm is in the initial position, coact to brake the arm against swinging movement that upon striking the ball, the arm can swing in the horizontal plane until it engages and compresses the spring means which functions to swing the arm in the opposite direction to the initial position and when the arm nearly reaches the initial position, the surfaces coact to brake the arm to a halt, ready for the next stroke.

The invention will be further described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a rear elevational view of a sports trainer in accordance with the invention,

FIG. 2 shows the device of FIG. 1, in plan view,

FIG. 3 shows to larger scale an attachment to the device of FIGS. 1 and 2 in partly broken-away plan view, and

' FIG. 4 shows the attachment of FIG. 3 in section.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2, a vertical standard 10 is firmly mounted in a base 11 which may be a concrete block inset in the ground.

Standard 10 is shaped to be engaged non-rotatably by a clamp 12, which on slackening of clamp bolts 13 may be moved slidably along standard 10.

A support bar denoted generally 14 consisting of two spaced parallel arms 15 is fixed to clamp 12 and projects substantially horizontally from standard 10.

A spring-steel arm 16 is fixed to a flat cam 17 which is pivotally mounted on bolt 18 towards the end of support 14, and lies between arms 15.

Arm 16 is bent into more or less an S-shape, and a ball 19 in ball cup 20 is removably attached to the outer end of arm 16. Attachment may be by threaded engagement with arm 16, and enables balls of different kinds, (for example, a tennis ball, baseball, golf ball), to be attached as required.

A small plate 21 is fixed between arms 15 and carries a compression spring 22 projecting beyond arms 15 and capped by a rubber cap 23.

Plate 21 is extended at 24 to lie slightly below curved face 25 of cam 17, and a nylon brake button 26 is mounted in this part of the plate being tilted as shown in FIG. 2 to provide an easy lead in to cam face 25. With the arm 16 in the ready" position (as in full lines in FIG. 2), button 26 contacts the cam face 25 and brakes the arm against pivoting. If the arm 16 pivots clockwise to the dotted line position (FIG. 2), cam surface 25 moves off button 26 allowing free pivoting of arm 16.

In use, the device is first set up for the purpose desired by attaching, say, a tennis ball at 19 and adjusting the clamp 12 on standard 10 to a height where ball 19 is positioned for serving.

The person training stands to the left in FIG. 2, and strokes ball 19 to pivot arm 16 clockwise. Arm 16 moves around with some force to the position shown in dotted lines when it contacts cap 23, compressing spring 22 and returning arm 16 counter-clockwise towards the ready position shown in full lines in FIG. 2.

As it reaches almost to this position, button 26 contacts cam surface 25 and brakes arm 16 to a halt, ready for the next stroke.

It will be apparent that the horizontal arm 16, together with the adjustable height of clamp 12 on standard 10 makes the device very versatile and adaptable to training for many different games and for a variety of circumstances in each game.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, these show an attachment for theapparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2, by which training practice can be combined with interesting games.

A housing 30 is attached by a bracket 31 to support bar 14 by a nut holding cap 23.

Housing 30 has a disc 32 fixed to a ratchet gear 33 by pin 34 and lock screw 35 and marked with various indicia 36 according to the simulated game to be played.

For example, the indicia for baseball or softball may be ball, strike, strikeout, first base," home run," and so on.

Gear 33 is freely rotatable on spindle 37, and a lid 38 on housing 30 has a transparent window 39 through which one of the indicia can be seen.

A rod 40 is journalled in bar 14 and casing 30 to slide longitudinally being biased to the right by spring 41. Rod 40 carries a rubber button 42 positioned to be struck by arm 16 at its extreme position in contact with cap 23.

Rod 40 carries a spring pawl 43 which, on sliding of rod 40 to the left, spins gear 33 and disc 32 counterclockwise. A fixed pawl 44 on the casing 30 ensures that the gear 33 is stopped with one of the indicia 34 aligned with window 39,

In operation, when ball 19 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is struck, the arm 16 strikes button 42 and thus spins the disc 32 at random, so that one of the indicia 34 appears under window 39, the corresponding score being credited to the person striking The detachable connection of disc 32 to gear 33 via lock screw 35 and pin 34 enables disc 32 to be turned over. The other side of the disc may be marked with indicia for a different game and alternative discs (each for two games) may be provided.

What 1 claim is:

l. A sports trainer for ball games in which the training ball is the same as the ball used in the game, including a support having a horizontal portion, said support being capable of adjustment to a desired location along a vertical standard, a substantially horizontal arm having opposite ends, a ball carried by one end of the arm, means pivotally connecting the opposite end of the arm to the horizontal portion of the support for swinging movement in a horizontal plane from an initial position in which the arm defines an extension of the horizontal portion, to a second position in which the arm is in substantial parallelism to the horizontal portion of the support, complemental means on the horizontal portion and the opposite end of the horizontal arm constituting braking means, compressing spring means on the horizontal portion of the support projecting beyond the horizontal portion in the direction of swinging movement of the arm operative when engaged by the arm in the second position thereof after the arm is swung to such position by stroking the ball, to return the arm and ball to the initial position, ready for a further stroke, and said complemental means including surfaces which, when the arm is in the initial position, coact to brake the arm against swinging movements so that upon stroking the ball, the arm can swing in a horizontal plane until it engages and compresses the spring means which functions to swing the arm in the opposite direction to the initial position and when the arm nearly reaches the initial position, the surfaces coact to brake the arm to a halt, ready for the next stroke.

2. The sports trainer as claimed in claim 1 in which said complemental means and surfaces comprise a cam having a curved face located beyond the pivotal connecting means, and a brake button on the horizontal portion of the support adjacent the curved face of the cam.

3. The sports trainer as claimed in claim 2 including a plate mounted on the horizontal portion of the support, said plate having an inclined portion to which the rake button is attached and said compression spring means being carried by said plate. 

1. A sports trainer for ball games in which the training ball is the same as the ball used in the game, including a support having a horizontal portion, said support being capable of adjustment to a desired location along a vertical standard, a substantially horizontal arm having opposite ends, a ball carried by one end of the arm, means pivotally connecting the opposite end of the arm to the horizontal portion of the support for swinging movement in a horizontal plane from an initial position in which the arm defines an extension of the horizontal portion, to a second position in which the arm is in substantial parallelism to the horizontal portion of the support, complemental means on the horizontal portion and the opposite end of the horizontal arm constituting braking means, compressing spring means on the horizontal portion of the support projecting beyond the horizontal portion in the direction of swinging movement of the arm operative when engaged by the arm in the second position thereof after the arm is swung to such position by stroking the ball, to return the arm and ball to the initial position, ready for a further stroke, and said complemental means including surfaces which, when the arm is in the initial position, coact to brake the arm against swinging movements so that upon stroking the ball, the arm can swing in a horizontal plane until it engages and compresses the spring means which functions to swing the arm in the opposite direction to the initial position and when the arm nearly reaches the initial position, the surfaces coact to brake the arm to a halt, ready for the next stroke.
 2. The sports trainer as claimed in claim 1 in which said complemental means and surfaces comprise a cam having a curved face located beyond the pivotal connecting means, and a brake button on the horizontal portion of the support adjacent the curved face of the cam.
 3. The sports trainer as claimed in claim 2 including a plate mounted on the horizontal portion of the support, said plate having an inclined portion to which the brake button is attached and said compression spring means being carried by said plate. 